Two missing women and discovery of four bodies on beachfront Suffolk County highway prompts Wednesday meeting

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December 16, 2010 12:45AM (UTC)

A New York police official says the FBI has offered any resources necessary to assist with a homicide investigation of four women whose bodies were dumped on a remote beach highway.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer says officials believe a serial killer could be responsible for the killings. Dormer says he and his staff met Wednesday with officials from the FBI's New York office.

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Dormer says agents offered any help they could.

The meeting comes as investigators look into the disappearance of two women working as prostitutes last seen on Long Island. One of the women was last seen in the vicinity of where the bodies were found in recent days, while the second was reported missing from a hotel about 15 miles away.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

BABYLON, N.Y. (AP) -- Four decomposed bodies found recently along a remote beach highway are all women, police confirmed Wednesday, as detectives planned to meet with the FBI for help in finding a possible serial killer.

Meanwhile, the mother of a Maine woman who worked as a Craigslist escort and went missing from a hotel on New York's Long Island told The Associated Press that police in Maine have said her daughter might be one of four bodies.

Megan Waterman, 22, of Scarborough, Maine, was last seen in June at a Hauppauge, N.Y., hotel where she went with her boyfriend. The hotel is about 15 miles from where the bodies were found.

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Waterman's mother, Lorraine Ela, told the AP on Wednesday that a Scarborough detective told her he was "leaning toward one of the four victims being Megan, but he's not 100 percent guaranteed."

Messages left for Scarborough police were not immediately returned. A spokeswoman for police in Suffolk County, N.Y., had no immediate comment.

The four bodies were systematically dumped, perhaps over a period of 18 months or longer, along a desolate, wind-swept stretch of highway east of Jones Beach State Park, police said.

The first of the decomposed corpses was found Saturday by an officer and his cadaver dog. Three more, all scattered within a quarter-mile, were found two days later.

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Now, authorities want to apprehend a possible serial killer.

"We're looking at that -- that we could have a serial killer," Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer told reporters at a briefing Tuesday before officers and the cadaver dog resumed searching for possibly more victims. "I don't think its a coincidence that four bodies ended up in this area."

The search along a highway about 45 miles east of New York City ended without any additional discoveries, but police intend to press on with an investigation.

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Police found the decomposed remains just feet from the roadway during an ongoing search for a missing prostitute last known to be headed to nearby Fire Island. As of Tuesday, there was no indication the woman, a 24-year-old from Jersey City, N.J., who was reported missing May 1, was among the dead.

Police believe the four were killed elsewhere and then brought to the site, a narrow strip of land that divides the Great South Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. The four-lane parkway runs through the middle, connecting Jones Beach State Park with several state and town-run beaches to its east.

Dormer said the search of the vast, remote area could take days or longer.